Breaking Out in Song

With today's endless options for never-leave-home cinematic and musical entertainment via cable television, Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and the like, it's easy to forget to seek out onstage opportunities and the marvels of live theater. Fortunately, the annual Fort Worth Opera Festival has become an industry innovator in connecting operatic performance to people's lives and offering reminders of the reach and range of this branch of the performing arts.

April 20 - May 12 brings up the curtain on the 2013 Opera Festival, and the seventh annual event promises updates that are both subtle and dramatic. Featured this year in staggered weekend performances at Fort Worth's Bass Performance Hall, April 20 -21, April 27 - 28, May 3 - 5 and May 10 - 12, are La Bohème, Giacomo Puccini's classic 1896 tragedy; The Daughter of the Regiment, a French switched-at-birth romantic comedy by Gaetano Donizetti; and Ariadne auf Naxos, Richard Strauss" 1912 comedic opera-within-an-opera.

In addition, the festival continues its alternate venue series, newly named Opera Unbound, with both weekend performances and a Tuesday - Wednesday scheduling of Glory Denied, a contemporary work by American composer Tom Cipullo. Based on the best-selling book by author Tom Philpott, Glory Denied tells the true story of Colonel Jim Thompson, America's longest-held prisoner of war. It will be performed in the new Opera Unbound venue, across the street from Bass Performance Hall at McDavid Studio. For more show time and ticket information, visit fwoperatickets.org.

Small Doses | The mid-April start date is a whole month earlier than the typical Opera Festival season, and the timing of it connects with the spring offering of Fort Worth Opera's popular seasonal series, Opera Shots. Scheduled for April 19, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., this year's spring Opera Shots event serves as a kick-off for the festival.

Christina Kucan, PR/communication specialist for the Fort Worth Opera, explains that the Fort Worth Opera's four studio artists along with cast members of the Fort Worth Festival Chorus sing favorite arias and duets, offering folks in attendance "a taste" of what opera is all about.

"Some people have described it as being like a karaoke night, opera-style," she explains. "It's very casual, and it's a great way for people who don't know much about opera to get a little bit of exposure to it without going to a big production. It's become really popular."

This year's studio artists include Corrie Donovan, soprano; Ian McEuen, tenor; Amanda Robie, mezzo-soprano; and Steven Eddy, baritone. The April 19 Opera Shots is held on the outdoor stage and patio of The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium at 111 E. Third St. (at Commerce).

Intimate as well as "short and sweet," the Opera Festival's Frontiers new works showcase wraps up the festival with performances of excerpts from eight contemporary works by operatic rising stars. Held May 9 - 10 at the McDavid Studio, the Frontiers productions are divided into four 20-minute performances each day, each with solo piano accompaniment.

The festival also features pre-performance sessions before each production, plus all ticket holders are invited to the ever-popular after parties that are attended by cast members and held in the lounge on Bass Hall's mezzanine level. Find more information about the pre-performance dinners and after-show lounge events here: fwopera.org.

Operatic Outbursts Fort Worth Opera expands its reputation as a champion of new, rarely-performed and contemporary operas with the establishment of Frontiers, its new works showcase.

Offering the public free access to eight short contemporary opera excerpts during the last weekend of the 2013 Opera Festival, May 6 - 11, the innovative and unusual program allows its short list of contemporary composers crucial exposure to influential industry insiders ranging from music publishers and funding organizations to artist managers and artistic directors.

According to Fort Worth Opera Music Director Joe Illick, enthusiastic audience responses to previous contemporary opera productions of works helped launch the Frontiers program, and the showcase has been designed to offer opera fans and newbies a stellar opportunity for "a sneak peek behind the curtain at how contemporary opera is born."

The unique event will also give audiences access to insightful discussions of the composers" backgrounds and inspirations during intimate post-performance discussions. Meanwhile, Frontiers" composers receive feedback on their work in private meetings with a jury panel of opera industry insiders and, in addition, recordings of the workshops for their use in completing the compositional process.

"Composing opera is a herculean task," adds General Director Darren K. Woods. "We hope to aid in composers" development and exposure by giving their undiscovered operas a platform to be heard by the public, critics and the opera industry."

In Frontiers" blind single-submission process, new composers from the Americas (North, Central and South America and associated territories) were each allowed to submit one 15 to 25-minute excerpt from an unpublished or self-published work. Frontiers submissions were also limited to those that could be performed with solo piano accompaniment and utilizing just one to six singers (no chorus).